Rafale Deal: The Central Government files a fresh affidavits in the Supreme Court against review pleas seeking inquiry
The Centre on Saturday filed fresh affidavits in the Supreme Court against a review petition seeking an inquiry into the Rafale fighter jet deal, ANI reported.
The government said the December 14, 2018 judgement of the Supreme Court which had dismissed all petitions seeking an inquiry into the government’s procurement of the Rafale fighter jets was correct. The Centre said unsubstantiated media reports or internal file noting “deliberately projected in a selective manner” cannot form the basis for review pleas.
The government said monitoring of the progress of the Rafale deal by the PMO cannot be construed as interference or parallel negotiations.
Delivering a unanimous verdict, the court had dismissed the Centre’s preliminary objections seeking review of earlier judgment giving a clean chit to the Union government in the Rafale deal.
Review petitions had been filed by Prashant Bhushan, Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie against the court’s judgement given in December.
The review petitions had cited ministry documents revealed by media reports – mainly those published in The Hindu – in February. During the hearings, the government claimed that these were privileged and secret official files, and publishing them is illegal and a threat to security. The government said the disclosure of such details is exempted even by the Right to Information Act and breaches the Section 123 of the Indian Evidence Act.
The Congress and other Opposition parties have consistently alleged of corruption in the Rafale deal signed by Narendra Modi’s government. Congress Chief Rahul Gandhi has brought up the matter multiple times, including in recent rallies ahead of the upcoming elections. He has called the deal a “blatant case of corruption”.
